1SS0 



GLEANINGS LN BEE CULTUEE. 



very green in bee culture; therefore I got a bee- 

 keeper to divide them for me, as they would not 

 swarm. I also boua-ht of him a tested Italian queen, 

 which he introduced the day he divided them, which 

 was July 3d,— pretty late in the season; but they 

 made enough for winter stores, and have wintered 

 so far. The Italian queen is an exceedingly prolific 

 one, keeping the hive always "chock full" of bees, 

 and brood in all stages, during the honey season. 

 They are the gentlest bees I ever saw, and plainly 

 show the three yellow bands a3 described in the 

 ABC. I worked with them without a bee veil all 

 last season, and did not receive a sting. Of course, 

 I began to think that I was an expert bee-keeper; 

 but one day, when m}' brother was putting a colony 

 of hybrids into a chaff hive, I boldly stepped up to 

 take part in the proceedings. I removed one frame 

 all right; but when I reached down for another, one 

 of said colony thought he would salute me. So 

 "zip," he took me right on my eyelid, and you just 

 ought to have seen me "heel it." My eye swelled so 

 that I could hardly see out of it for 2 or 3 days; so I 

 have got enough of them. 



I expect to Italianize all of my mother's bees (she 

 has 6 colonies, 3 blacks and 3 hybrids) and my own 

 from the Italian queen described above. Do you think 

 she is a good one to breed from? When I commence 

 Italianizing, the black and hybrid queens will be of 

 no use to me, and if you want them to fill orders 

 with, I will send them to you with the greatest of 

 pleasure, provided you will furnish cages and pay 

 postage. One of the hybrid queens produces the 

 best honey gatherers I ever saw, and is remarkably 

 prolific, always keeping her colouy the strongest in 

 the apiary; but they are like a nest of yellow jack- 

 ets to work with. If you want any of the above 

 queens, I will notify you when I get ready to ship. 



M. B. Moore. 



Morgan Station, Ky., March 23, 1880. 



Many thanks, my young friend, for your 

 very kind offer, but I think it will be better 

 for you to ship the queens directly to those 

 who may happen to want them ; and I wish 

 to say, my friend Moore, aside from bee-cul- 

 ture, that your letter is perhaps as line a 

 specimen of penmanship, as ever came to 

 the office of Gleanings. I wonder if you 

 have not been reading and profiting by my 

 remarks in January number. I wish our 

 boys— aye, and older ones too— would write 

 to you for some copies, and then set earnest- 

 ly to work and do likewise. I am very glad 

 indeed that you have the American Bee 

 Journal, and it does me good to hear of 

 neighbors borrowing and lending their jour- 

 nals in the way you mention ; it looks like 

 helping one another. 



GALU P. 



SOME OF niS IDEAS IX KEGARD TO QUEEN REARING 

 AND IMPROVING BEES GENERALLY. 



s gjf' HAVE just received a circular from J. Oatman 

 I & Sons, of Dundee, Kane Co., 111., which calls 

 my attention to a fact in bee culture that is not 

 generally appreciated. He says "Hard work, and 

 close attention to the valuable traits developed by 

 special stocks and lines of blood in our yards for the 

 past few years, have now placed us in possession of 



a line of Italians," &c. He further says, "We are 

 forced from long and careful experiments to give 

 preference to the leather colored bees, finding them 

 more worthy in every particular ot further develop- 

 ment." Now this corresponds bo exactly with my 

 experience and with the experience of the late 

 Adam Grim, that I thought it well enough to give 

 my experience in the matter. It is a well known 

 fact to every bee-keeper that he will have some 

 stocks in the apiary that are far superior, in every 

 particular, to all others. Now, by careful selection, 

 and breeding only from selected stocks, for a series 

 of years, every stock in the apiary con be brought 

 up to a high standard of excellence. Mr. Grim said 

 that he wanted bees for profit, and not for fancy, and 

 I want the same. I have invariably found the dark 

 leather colored Italians preferable to the extra light 

 colored. I know that many breeders have bred for 

 color simply, because there was a demand for hand- 

 somely colored bees without regard to other quali- 

 ties. While in Iowa, I bred for five years in succes- 

 sion exclusively from queens that came up to my 

 standard, and the result was a race of bees that was 

 far above the ordinary standard for protit, and profit 

 is what we are after. In examining our bees the 

 past week, we found one stock whose queen had 

 filled 12 combs completely, and two more partially 

 (standard L. combs) with brood. Now I would murli 

 prefer 15 stocks of the above class to 50 ordinary 

 or common stocks, as they are found through the 

 country to-day, and I would actually get more protit 

 from the 15 than from the 50. You will probably say 

 that this is one of Gallup's yarns; but try the ex- 

 periment for yourselves. It certainly pays to im- 

 prove the breed of bees, and that they can be im- 

 proved, and wonderfully improved, is a positive 

 fact. 



I sent an order to the editor of Gleanings, the 

 first of this month, for two imported queens without 

 giving any directions as to color, and he sent one 

 dark, leather colored queen, and one light colored 

 one. Now, for my own use, I prefer the dark one 

 before the light one every time. Suppose they are 

 not quite so gentle in their disposition at all seasons 

 of the year (and I am perfectly willing to allow that 

 they are not) it is the working qualities that I am 

 after. 1 have no objections, not in the least, to dol- 

 lar queens, providing they are properly bred, and 

 bred from extra good stock. Raising them for one 

 dollar each does not make them worthless, by any 

 means. We would be just as apt to get good queens 

 for one dollar as for five dollars, providing they 

 were raised from good stock, and by a careful and 

 reliable apiarian. Queen cells should always be 

 raised in good, strong stocks, with an abundance of 

 nursing bees, and they should be gathering natural 

 food abundantly, or be fed freely at the time. After 

 they are sealed, they can be transferred to smaller 

 stocks or nuclei to be hatched and be fertilized. 

 Save all the queen cells that are raised in excellent 

 stocks at swarming time, for they are about as near 

 right as they can be made. Why not improve bees 

 as well as our domestic animals? I do not get the 

 imported queens expecting to get anything superior 

 to those raised in this country, but for the sake of 

 introducing a new strain of blood or a cross in the 

 stock; for bees should never be bred in and in for a 

 series of years, expecting to keep upthc standard of 

 excellence. They will run out the same as our hens 

 and turkeys. B. Gallcr. 



Santa Paula, Cal., March 30, 1880. 



